Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849Gilly, William O. S.
History
Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849
Gilly, William O. S.
Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History -- 18th century; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History -- 19th century; Shipwrecks
About four o'clock in the morning, the spirits of the crew were
revived by seeing a boat appear between the wreck and a large fire
that had been kept burning immediately opposite. This was a welcome
sight, and it was hailed by three loud and hearty cheers from the
Pallas.
Many of the men by this time were suffering much from cold, hunger,
and fatigue, and those who were able, got into the weather chains for
safety and shelter. Daylight discovered to them the real position of
the ship; the light which had been supposed to be on the Isle of May
was that of a lime-kiln on the main land, and as the Bass and North
Berwick Law were plainly visible, it was evident from their bearings
that the frigate was on shore near to Dunbar. She was now a total
wreck--the bottom had separated to some extent amidships from her
upper works; a considerable portion of her floor timber was lying
about ten yards to windward of the rest of the hull, and the iron
ballast within this frame of timber was thus open to view. It was now
time for every man to provide as far as possible for his own safety. A
Portuguese sailor, an excellent swimmer, was the first to quit the
wreck and swim on shore; several men attempted to follow his example,
but five of them perished. The life-boat from Dunbar, which had been
launched with great difficulty on account of the heavy surf beating on
the rocks, reached the ship at ten o'clock in the morning of the 19th,
and she took off a boat-load from the wreck and landed them in safety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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